Lacrosse to come to Cedar Grove High School as club sport

Cradle and jump shot may no longer be terms reserved for just the winter season at Cedar Grove High School, as the Panthers are looking to add a lacrosse program as a club sport in the spring of 2015.

While the athletic department is currently in the process of budgeting out how the program would fit in, it would seem the logical next step to bring the fastest-growing sport in the country to Cedar Grove.

Cedar Grove Schools Superintendent Michael Fetherman said unless something "unexpected" happens, the program should be ready to go in just over a year.

While at first the program will be offered as a club sport at the school, Fetherman said there is no timeline for when they could turn it into a full-time NJSIAA program. First he wants to wait and see just how popular it is.

"I think it's wise to do that anytime you're introducing a new program at the high school level," the superintendent said.

This comes on the heels of Cedar Grove offering the sport recreationally for the first time. Previously athletes have had to play in other local leagues like Verona, but with the sports popularity in the town even those leagues couldn't take in anymore outside athletes.

Kevin Brown, president of the Cedar Grove Lacrosse Club, said while his own children would have been grandfathered into the Verona program, others around town were not so lucky.

"I had a lot of people coming to me from Cedar Grove saying, 'I wish my kids could play,'" he said. "I talked to a couple of parents and said, 'We should really start getting it going and see if we can do it.' So we did."

About 200 kids have already signed up for the club, with three boys teams and a girls team set to play in the spring.

The program has grown organically, first by word of mouth and then after picking up steam through an email sent out in the district.

"It's just so funny going to the town pool and seeing kids walk around with Cedar Grove lacrosse shirts on," Brown said. "We have magnets for the cars and just walking through Foodtown it's like, 'Holy cow, how many kids are in this program?'"

What the former college player himself thinks attracts kids to the sport is the constant movement, and the fact that the game suits players of any size.

"The part that I love is that I've had more parents come up to me who never played lacrosse and have never seen it, and just tell me how much their kids love it," Brown said.

To help bridge this knowledge gap the club has set up a mentorship program, with each player on the seventh and eighth-grade team having a young player to look after and help out. The plan is to have both age groups attend each other's games, where they can ask and answer questions after.

"It's one of those sports that you really find a strong bond to it, especially in life," Brown said. "We're trying to build that community around lacrosse in Cedar Grove, because I think it's been lacking in some other sports."

While the big question is where will the funding for the high school sport come from, the club's president said that many parents have expressed an interest to do a pay-to-play program, which would help subsidize the costs for the school.

Brown noted that most lacrosse players at the high school level buy their own equipment, and the school would really just need to supply uniforms, transportation and field space.

Another path the Panthers may try to go down is a co-op, or partnering with another school to help grow the program. Currently the Cedar Grove ice hockey team is joined with the Passaic Valley Hornets.

This option will largely depend on the participation numbers, Cutler said. She also noted that the point of every co-op program is to break apart down the road.

For now though Fetherman said that the interest of future high school students in the district really helped show that now is the time to bring the sport to Cedar Grove.

He is now looking forward to seeing what Cedar Grove 'lax' - a shorthand term for lacrosse - is going to bring to the table.

Lacrosse to come to Cedar Grove High School as club sport

Cradle and jump shot may no longer be terms reserved for just the winter season at Cedar Grove High School, as the Panthers are looking to add a lacrosse program as a club sport in the spring of 2015.

While the athletic department is currently in the process of budgeting out how the program would fit in, it would seem the logical next step to bring the fastest-growing sport in the country to Cedar Grove.

Cedar Grove Schools Superintendent Michael Fetherman said unless something "unexpected" happens, the program should be ready to go in just over a year.

While at first the program will be offered as a club sport at the school, Fetherman said there is no timeline for when they could turn it into a full-time NJSIAA program. First he wants to wait and see just how popular it is.

"I think it's wise to do that anytime you're introducing a new program at the high school level," the superintendent said.

This comes on the heels of Cedar Grove offering the sport recreationally for the first time. Previously athletes have had to play in other local leagues like Verona, but with the sports popularity in the town even those leagues couldn't take in anymore outside athletes.

Kevin Brown, president of the Cedar Grove Lacrosse Club, said while his own children would have been grandfathered into the Verona program, others around town were not so lucky.

"I had a lot of people coming to me from Cedar Grove saying, 'I wish my kids could play,'" he said. "I talked to a couple of parents and said, 'We should really start getting it going and see if we can do it.' So we did."

About 200 kids have already signed up for the club, with three boys teams and a girls team set to play in the spring.

The program has grown organically, first by word of mouth and then after picking up steam through an email sent out in the district.

"It's just so funny going to the town pool and seeing kids walk around with Cedar Grove lacrosse shirts on," Brown said. "We have magnets for the cars and just walking through Foodtown it's like, 'Holy cow, how many kids are in this program?'"

What the former college player himself thinks attracts kids to the sport is the constant movement, and the fact that the game suits players of any size.

"The part that I love is that I've had more parents come up to me who never played lacrosse and have never seen it, and just tell me how much their kids love it," Brown said.

To help bridge this knowledge gap the club has set up a mentorship program, with each player on the seventh and eighth-grade team having a young player to look after and help out. The plan is to have both age groups attend each other's games, where they can ask and answer questions after.

"It's one of those sports that you really find a strong bond to it, especially in life," Brown said. "We're trying to build that community around lacrosse in Cedar Grove, because I think it's been lacking in some other sports."

While the big question is where will the funding for the high school sport come from, the club's president said that many parents have expressed an interest to do a pay-to-play program, which would help subsidize the costs for the school.

Brown noted that most lacrosse players at the high school level buy their own equipment, and the school would really just need to supply uniforms, transportation and field space.

Another path the Panthers may try to go down is a co-op, or partnering with another school to help grow the program. Currently the Cedar Grove ice hockey team is joined with the Passaic Valley Hornets.

This option will largely depend on the participation numbers, Cutler said. She also noted that the point of every co-op program is to break apart down the road.

For now though Fetherman said that the interest of future high school students in the district really helped show that now is the time to bring the sport to Cedar Grove.